Does anyone know how to rip an audio stream? I'd like to record the music that is being played through the sound card. Currently, if I patch the headphone jack to the microphone jack, I can record music and produce music files with audacity or arecord. However, that converts the music to analog and then redigitizes it, which is dumb. Also, I tried and use alsamixer which seems to have a 'Capture' feature, but can't figure out how to get it to work.

Is there a way to rip audio streams directly from the sound card to a file?

Assuming you're also using fedora, install pulseaudio volume control, use it to set input device to show all input devices in the dropdown. This should show another device for your soundcard monitor. Click the check to use the monitor device, then use audacity to record whatever is playing.